Eleven risk elements rationalizing laboratory accidents at universities

<p>Accidents during research and educational activities are reported to universities in order to improve the safety management and training. This study reveals hidden risk elements involved in laboratory accidents. A handbook for safety at Nagoya University “Safety Lessons Learned from Accidents - 85 Selected Cases in Nagoya University” is a summary of over 1,500 reports of general and laboratory accidents from FY2004 to FY2017, and 66 various cases of the laboratory accidents in the handbook are subjected to the analysis. Description of each case illustrates the causes of laboratory accidents, such as inappropriate handling of hazardous materials, poor laboratory conditions, high-risk operations, and ignorance of rules. In our analysis, the causes of each laboratory accident were classified into the three risk factors: hardware, human, and software, then we rationalized the causes with the risk elements as subcategories of the risk factors. Some of the elements were frequently observed in the 66 cases, which highlight important points when improving laboratory safety. The results of our analysis also show that multiple risk elements are involved in all the cases of laboratory accidents. Increasing the number of risk elements in the laboratory also tends to result in a serious laboratory accident. In addition, the risk elements were further categorized into the three roles: inducer, initiator, and promotor. Multiple risk elements as inducers are present under the normal laboratory conditions. Involvement of initiator risk elements is considered to set unsafe conditions, and the promotor risk element amplifies the severity of accident. We suggest that the risk elements concerning especially to education and communication are important when considering of safety activities in the laboratory, such as safety training, sharing hazard information, risk assessment, laboratory inspection, and selection of personal protective equipment.</p>